BORA – Barrier and Operational Risk Analysis

The BORA project was carried out from early 2003 until the end of 2006, although some of the work was not finally completed until mid 2007. The BORA project was a cooperation between UiS, Preventor, Safetec Nordic and SINTEF, with Professor Jan Erik Vinnem as the Project Manager.

The work with operational hazards started in 1996, with the work on operational safety of FPSOs. Operational hazards are taken to imply hazards that are mainly controlled by operational actions, i.e. by preparation of procedures and instructions for operators, supervisors, maintenance personnel and others to use in their execution of normal work tasks, and during response to abnormal events and conditions.

The objective of the BORA project was to model operational hazards in a manner which could allow for quantification and the possibility to see effects of operational improvements. Risk quantification is based on use of Influence Diagrams. Dependencies are one of the weak aspects in this approach. The main elements that are considered are individuals, procedures, organisation and environment, or classified alternatively; equipment, people and management systems, all within the framework of culture and environment.

The approach utilised in the BORA project has been the basis for the OTS development project for StatoilHydro (2006 – ), and the Risk_OMT R & D project with NFR and StatoilHydro funding (2007 – 2010).

The total project budget was 5.5 mill NOK. The project was funded by NFR, PSA, HSE, OLF and StatoilHydro.

The following are reports and papers that describe the BORA approach: